El gesto de señalamiento en el desarrollo de la comunicación intencional de los niños de Educación Inicial

Abstract

The pointing gesture is a form of non-verbal communication that facilitates the expression of needs, desires, and intentions in early childhood, establishing a foundation for more complex communicative and pragmatic skills. The main problem focused on the inadequate or limited use of the pointing gesture in educational contexts, which affect the development of intentional communication and, consequently, children’s social interactions. The primary objective was to establish the relationship between the pointing gesture and intentional communication. The research adopted a quantitative approach, basic in type, with a descriptive and correlational scope, and a non-experimental design. A Likert-scale survey was applied, consisting of two parts: structured observation and guided activities. It was validated using SPSS software, achieving reliability through Cronbach's Alpha with a score of 0.86. The most relevant results indicated that, in the “Melita’s” and “Romina” Early Education Centers, most children effectively used the pointing gesture during guided activities, showing an increase in the development of their intentional communication. However, another group of children demonstrated limited or irregular use of the gesture, particularly in less structured contexts. Based on these findings, a proposal of playful activities was designed to stimulate the appropriate and frequent use of the gesture, allowing children to express their needs and desires according to their developmental stage.